Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,636 · Stories: 19,540

• Brown Skua Stercorarius antarcticus

  

  The Brown Skua is a large seabird that breeds on islands south of New Zealand and may pursue other seabirds at sea.

• Desert hedgehog Paraechinus aethiopicus

  The desert hedgehog is a hedgehog of dry country, including northwestern Saudi Arabia.

• Rifleman Acanthisitta chloris

  The Rifleman is a tiny forest bird endemic to New Zealand and feeds on insects and spiders. It keeps moving as it searches along trunks and branches.

• Thomas's Shaggy Bat Centronycteris centralis

  Thomas’s shaggy bat is a rare, long-furred bat found mainly in lowland forests from Central America to Peru. A Costa Rican specimen contained plant hoppers and other insects.

• Great Iora Aegithina lafresnayei

  The Great Iora is a small bird with a yellow face and underparts and a black-edged yellow forecrown. It lives in lowland evergreen and semi-deciduous forests.

• Dusky Caenolestid Caenolestes fuliginosus

  The dusky caenolestid is a small marsupial of the cool, wet highlands of the Andes. It has an elongated face and glossy, silky fur.

• Black-bellied Storm-Petrel Fregetta tropica

  The species breeds on subantarctic islands, and some birds move toward equatorial waters in winter.

• Smith's Bush Squirrel Paraxerus cepapi

  Its back ranges from yellowish brown to gray, its underside is pale, and white lines surround the eyes. This is a diurnal squirrel that mainly uses trees.

• Olive-backed Tanager Mitrospingus oleagineus

  This tanager occurs in humid forests from Venezuela through the Guianas to northern Brazil and searches foliage for small prey.

• Peter's Disk-winged Bat Thyroptera discifera

  This small bat roosts in groups under leaves and uses suction cups on its feet and thumbs to cling to them.

• Cinereous Mourner Laniocera hypopyrra

  This mourner occurs in Amazonian lowland forest and elsewhere. A nest was reported in mature floodplain forest in Peru, and a Brazilian study documented a distinctive juvenile plumage.

• Yellow-winged Bat Lavia frons

  The yellow-winged bat has a blue-gray body and red-and-yellow wings. It uses open savanna and woodland near water, catching insects that pass its perch.

• Blue-throated Barbet Psilopogon asiaticus

  The Blue-throated Barbet has a green body and blue throat and ranges through forests from South Asia to northern mainland Southeast Asia.

• Elegant Fat-tailed Mouse Opossum Thylamys elegans

  Its tail stores fat and changes in thickness by season with food availability. The coat is tricolored: darker on the back, paler on the sides, and cream-colored underneath.

• Black-hooded Sierra Finch Phrygilus atriceps

  The Black-hooded Sierra Finch occurs in the central Andes. Males have a black hood and orange-rufous body, and forage on the ground in dry, sparse scrub.

• Weasel Lemur Lepilemur mustelinus

  The weasel sportive lemur is a nocturnal lemur of eastern Madagascar's rainforests. Most have chestnut-brown fur, though bright orange individuals have also been observed.

• Velvet Asity Philepitta castanea

  The Velvet Asity lives in Madagascar's forests, and breeding males look very different from females. Males raise the structures above their eyes during courtship.

• Magellanic Tuco-tuco Ctenomys magellanicus

  The Magellanic tuco-tuco is a burrowing rodent known from southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Historical accounts describe it digging underground burrows and eating grass.

• Vogelkop Owlet-nightjar Aegotheles affinis

  It lives in lower montane forest on the Bird’s Head Peninsula of western New Guinea, with brownish plumage and a pale collar.

• Malayan tapir Acrocodia indica

  The Malayan tapir inhabits Southeast Asian tropical forests. Adults have large black-and-white areas on the body.

• Fan-tailed Cuckoo Cacomantis flabelliformis

  A cuckoo that may fan its tail. It searches for insects on the ground and lays eggs in other birds’ nests in Australia.

• Siberut Langur Presbytis siberu

  This langur is endemic to Siberut Island, Indonesia, and the current MDD treats it as a separate species. It lives in trees and is active by day, though field research dedicated to the species remains limited after its separation from related forms.

• Chameleon Dwarf Kingfisher Ceyx lepidus

  This small kingfisher is marked by a white bar on the side of its neck and an orange spot beside the base of its bill.

• Kano's Mole Mogera kanoana

  Kano's mole occurs in Taiwan. A revision describes broadleaf forest as its main habitat and records tunnels along mountain trails as well as mounds and surface tunnels in gardens, fields and lawns.